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Jimmy Mahon
Jimmy Mahon (1892-) was head of government intelligence of the Irish Free State during the 1920s. He was a veteran of the 1916 Easter Rising as well as the Irish War of Independence, rising from being an Irish Citizen Army typesetter to becoming an IRA officer and later one of Michael Collins' top lieutenants. Biography Easter Rising Jimmy Mahon was born in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland in 1892, the brother of Arthur and Paddy Mahon. He came from a working-class family, and he became a staunch Irish republican and socialist in response to Britain's poor treatment of its Irish subjects. Mahon joined the Irish Citizen Army and ITGWU of James Connolly and became a typesetter and propagandist at the ITGWU building. On the outbreak of World War I, Arthur joined the British Army, leaving Jimmy to take care of his wife Peggy and her four children; Jimmy's nephew Peter idolized his uncle and begged him for an ICA uniform. Mahon was involved in the drafting of the proclamation of the Irish Republic just before the start of the Easter Rising in 1916, and, upon the uprising's start, he was assigned to serve under Sean Connolly in the unit sent to take Dublin Castle. The assault was a failure, and Mahon and the others were forced to retreat to the General Post Office, where Connolly was killed and Kathleen Lynn took command of the defense. On 26 April, a few days after the start of the uprising, Mahon and Elizabeth Butler took part in the IRB's evacuation of the GPO, and Mahon and Frances O'Flaherty were sent by James Connolly to help Mick Malone ambush the British reinforcements sent into Dublin. Mahon and O'Flaherty managed to escape as more reinforcements arrived, and, while O'Flaherty escaped the battle while dressed as a civilian, Mahon was one of the IRB fighters who was forced to surrender upon the uprising's defeat on 29 April. Mahon was imprisoned alongside Desmond Byrne and Eamon de Valera, whom he deridingly called "the Spaniard" and insulted for his failure to reinforce the besieged IRA troops in Dublin. Irish War of Independence Mahon was released during the general amnesty of 1917, and he returned to his republican activities. During the Irish War of Independence, Mahon took part in guerrilla warfare against the British Army and Royal Irish Constabulary, continuing his fight for Irish independence. After he was wounded in an ambush of a RIC constable in 1920, he was promoted by Michael Collins, who needed a counterintelligence leader to fight back against General Ormonde Winter's "Cairo Gang". He was trained by Frank Brogan, while Joey Bradley took over his old squad; he was given the alias "Kinsella", a British secret agent, in order to allow for him to get past the British curfew. He convinced Dublin Castle codebreaker Ursula Sweeney to leak classified information to him in exchange for helping her rescue her son from being adopted against her will by an American couple. This allowed for the IRA to murder the British agent Albert Saunders, but Mahon insisted that Sweeney help him find Winter's assassination squad. Brogan secretly tried to convince Collins that Mahon was lying and that he was the British intelligence's "Wolfhound" informant, but Collins came to be convinced of Mahon's loyalty when he discovered and verified the addresses of the British Cairo Gang, who were then wiped out in the ensuing "Bloody Sunday" massacre of 21 November 1920. Meanwhile, Mahon discovered that his brother had been captured by the North Cork IRA, and he killed Brogan's subordinate Kevin Maloney and rescued his brother, whom he convinced to fake his death by blowing off the face of Paddy's dead colleague Albert Finlay and passing off the body as Paddy's. Mahon then returned to Dublin, where, having become convinced of Brogan's betrayal, he aimed to kill the traitor. He tracked him down to a Gaelic football stadium later on 21 November and mortally wounded him with a gunshot to the chest, but he decided to let him die of his wounds rather than deliver a coup de grace. Michael Collins then invited Mahon to take Maloney's place, and he told him of his plans to hold secret peace talks with the British to establish an "Irish Free State", asking Mahon to join him. Irish Civil War , 1921]]By 1921, Mahon was one of Collins' followers, and he began to notice divisions in the Irish republican ranks as Father Gabriel Leonard accused Collins of selling his soul for agreeing to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Mahon was appointed Chief of Government Intelligence, and he staunchly supported the treaty and criticized his former acquaintance, the journalist Eithne Drury, for speaking out against the treaty; even his own niece Minnie Mahon was opposed to it. Gallery Jimmy Mahon 1914.png|Mahon in 1914 Jimmy Mahon Dublin.png|Mahon in 1916 Jimmy Mahon rising.png|Mahon preparing for the Easter Rising Category:1892 births Category:IRB Category:Irish Category:Atheists Category:Irish socialists Category:Socialists Category:IRA Category:Irish Labor Party members Category:Cumann na nGaedheal members